<p>For HYPS etc. and for my D’s sport, August was a good time for those defining questions. July might be a little too early since some coaches are on vacation then, but most are back to work by late August unless the school is on a quarter system (Dartmouth, Stanford). By the end of August, or at the latest by the beginning of September, the student will have received his school or club athletic schedule if he plays a fall sport, so the college coach and the athlete can determine what weekends would be convenient for official visits. One coach actually asked for a copy of D’s fall schedule and arranged her visit for a weekend when she had no team obligation.</p>
<p>I think athletes should try to take at least one SAT in Dec. or Jan. of junior year, which leaves one or two spring dates for retakes and for SAT II’s if necessary. Having that score by the spring will move the process along much faster.</p>
<p>I absolutely agree with the poster above regarding the timeline for SAT testing. I wish I knew about this board before this year because we had very little knowledge regarding recruiting and here it is the end of February of my son’s senior year and we are STILL waiting to hear whether he is going to get into one of the Ivy’s for swimming. Fogfog, would your daughter consider going ED in the fall? Son didnt take his first round of SAT’s until end of junior year which slowed everything down. Someone here needs to write a book because the information I have culled from this forum has helped me so much. Might be too late for my son but who knows how it might help my younger daughter in the future.</p>
<p>fogfog, I agree with GFG about the timing for seriously questioning the coaches about whether one is a “real” recruit. Invitation to an official visit (in August) is the first indicator that the coach is truly interested. While it might seem like they could host unlimited numbers of official visits, they really don’t. Hosting recruits is a lot of work for the coaches and their current athletes, and they have to fit it into their competitive schedule, if a fall sport. </p>
<p>I’m not saying an invitation is a guarantee that you’ll STAY on the list, but it is a clearcut sign that you’re on it. Until then, as you say, it’s to the coaches’ advantage to encourage (through emails, team updates, birthday cards, congratulatory cards after good athletic performances…yeah, I know, things can get kind of weird) as many recuits as they can, until they can sort the wheat from the chaff.</p>
<p>On the other hand, GFG and others have mentioned that you should be careful about equating lots of early attention with having found the perfect match. Things happen: some good coaches at great schools aren’t necessarily the best at playing that part of the game. Also, things fall through the cracks: one Ivy coach called my D very late in the game, apologizing profusely, and said she was high on their list, but each coach for the program thought the other was in charge of contacting her. This was in late August, when every other program had been on the phone with her for weeks. We just thought she wasn’t on their list. </p>
<p>Moral is, and this has been said many times on this forum, self-recruiting- telling a coach of your interest in a school and team- is a very important part of the process.</p>
<p>Yes, the upside is getting into a tough admissions school. Going into the admissions process as a coach supported athlete, EXTREMELY content with that ED school - once we got to that point life was simple. Admissions had done a thorough early read on SATs, GPA and the “resume”. Big green light. Started every game as a freshman, played a ton and had some decent league stats.</p>
<p>The decision to quit the sport after 2 years was extremely difficult. Loved being an athlete, loved the team. New coach - a nightmare. It was time to cut the losses, the anxiety was not worth it and was impacting health and studies. The scholarship players - that’s a different story; much $$$ is at stake.</p>
<p>And yes, my child was on top of the SAT timing and what not as we recognized the possibility of pursuing athletics. And there are books out there to help one think about the process. It’s a lot of hard work and self promotion for those who are not the mega stars but who have a certain passion and talent.</p>
<p>Again, if at all possible, don’t wait until senior year to complete the testing. Knowing your scores early allows you to assess which colleges are potential academic matches and also allows the coaches to make the same determination about the recruit’s fit.</p>
<p>D met an top athlete who had not fit in SAT II’s by fall of senior year. At that point he had official visits to schedule, working around all his high school athletic competitions. One of these official visits could only be scheduled on the last possible SAT testing day seniors can use. As a result of not taking SAT II’s that day, he missed out on Ivy recruiting. I know at least Harvard was very interested in him. Granted, I don’t think he cared that much about Harvard, but if he had changed his mind or if the other D1 schools had fallen through, he would have been left with fewer options.</p>
<p>Pach- I don’t know how you can make such sweeping generalizations. I agree with Gfg that because there really isn’t an established policy or many rules for D3-probably because no money is involved-it has to vary widely by sport, school and coach.</p>
<p>I want to encourage all the parents to ask for a “walk-thru” or “pre-read” before committing by applying ED, especially to a highly selective school.</p>
<p>To me, being asked to an official visit where you stay for a weekend, get fed, meet(or practice with ) the team, are fed, given info, and are contacted afterwards by the coach, team members is being recruited. My son thought he would be accepted at all the schools that had him for an official visit if he applied ED.That was the impression he got.</p>
<p>Thanks to these boards, we learned we should not be as “optimistic” as our son, or the impression he got from the coaches, and were saved from a “D-3 disaster”</p>
<p>gfg, oldb: i think your points are important. i was going to add in qualifiers about D3 (money) and different sports/different time tables, especially individual timed sports like swimming or running. I would guess that a recruiting coach may be working on a different calender with those athletes.</p>
<p>where i do have a different position is around the notion that more than a few college coaches have bad behavior (or maybe unjust is a better word) when it comes to recruiting. I just don’t see that from my D’s experience in her sport and my friends experiences in water polo, football, and golf. </p>
<p>I do think that the layers of “recruiting” or “interest” are a lot more varied than the two gross examples I listed. I’d list the highest level as acknowledgement by a full page press release including photos on the home page of the recruiting colleges athletic departments website:) followed by a dozen or more levels down to walk on.</p>
<p>I appreciate everyones thoughts on this forum, it’s far more collegial than other forums. I think many of us will be on the sidelines at the same events in the future. it’s fun having an athlete, isn’t it!</p>
<p>It has been very exciting and interesting… I wish I had been on when my S was a young junior. I felt we all were very naive, but as I have said before-it all worked out great!</p>
<p>Fogfog-let’s hope the ACT is better for your child- my S did MUCH better on it percentile-wise. There’s nothing you can do about it, so try to let it go…I wish I had made mine take the SAT2s twice-didn’t plan for that…</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that the behavior was BAD, “overly optimistic” is the phrase I would use…</p>
<p>goodness, fogfog, what sport is this that the you think the coaches want a 2200? I keep hearing 1800 and my son’s sport is not particularly high revenue even though it is hard sport. Two of his club teammates are already going to this school (Ivy) with respective SAT’s of 1840 and 1930.</p>
<p>Our student has a better than 1900 for the first SAT in Jan–and is being talked to by HYP schools and the coach of one said the scores were “a nice start”…</p>
<p>the middle 50% is over 700 for each section…</p>
<p>^^I do think it is probably the sport. I know for a fact that at my son’s school athletes routinely go to Harvard with 3.5-ish gpa and 1800 test scores. Hard sport. Another friend of ours has a son who was told he needed a 1700 for Harvard and he is going…recruited for two hard sports. I do see a 1700 on our Naviance page as well.</p>
<p>^^i wonder how much gender has to do with it too. do they hold female athletes to a higher academic standard than males, in the non-revenue sports. I know several of the stats on the women on my D’s soon to be college team and they are all academic rock stars, NMS, 3.9, 2300 types. Do you think the men in those sports have similar stats at HYPS? </p>
<p>or is it just football and basketball (i assuming that’s what you mean by hardsports) that have lower admission standards?</p>
<p>The males in my DD’s Ivy sport also have tippy-top stats. Even on the football team, there are plenty of NMS, Presidential Scholar types, near perfect scorers, even a perfect-ACT linesman (who plays a lot). </p>
<p>I think the term helmet sports refers to hockey and football, maybe some baseball players?</p>
<p>Frankly
while there will be student-athletes who may get in with a bit lower SAT…in general the top schools are not going to risk a stuent who cannot graduate<br>
They are students first…
so hoping whatever it takes to be a viable candidate come July 1 is there…</p>
<p>It will be what it will be–I can’t control it and our student will submit a best effort and we will have to work with it…
sigh
tired already ;o)</p>
<p>^^agree, but my kid is an athlete first and worked hard for good grades and test scores so she could be on a top team…the top teams in her sport just happen to mostly match the top 20 universities in the country. I think the only exception is USC, they’re ranked, I think, 27th top university or something and closing fast. So, for her she had little choice if she wanted to be on a team that fit her ability, she had to get good grades and test scores.</p>
<p>and fog, you are right, they said “we want to know you’ll be able to do the academic work when you’re here” that’s why they like the 8 AP classes she had taken.</p>
<p>right now d works 30+ hours a week on her sport. In college they say it’ll be more like 40+ and go to school full time…jeez!</p>